How To Survive The Ascent’s Final Encounter in Unhandled Exception

Neon Giant’s fun but flawed twin-stick shooter is for the most part a gentle ride, so you might be caught off guard by the final encounter in the mission Unhandled Exception. This final encounter requires you to close an interdimensional gate with some tentacles poking out of it, lest hentai take over the civilised world (I think? The story was hard to follow). This sequence suddenly dials up the action to 11, so if you’re struggling with the pace and volume of enemies I’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks that will get you through.

Your loadout is important and should focus on having to stand still while you interact with the consoles

The boss will be defeated once you hold down the interact button on four different consoles (the one you need to hit next will have a green screen). While you’re holding down the button you’ll be extremely vulnerable, so it’s important you arm yourself accordingly. The Rejuv Field is an absolute must, as you can pop it on the console before interacting with it to heal yourself as enemies attack you. Given the sheer volume of enemies, the Rejuv Field will recharge very quickly, which is handy as you’ll want a means of healing that doesn’t rely on enemy drops.

Another helpful skill that will allow you to stand still is the Razor Dronettes, which will dish out damage to enemies who touch you directly. It’s one you’ll want to pop after dropping the Rejuv Field when you go to interact with a console.

The Propulsion Leap is invaluable, as it’s extremely powerful and will severely mess up the little guys, capable of clearing out huge swathes of enemies in one go. It has a very short cooldown and energy demand, as well as a decent radius. It also doesn’t require too much aiming; just throw yourself in the general direction of the danger.

This loadout should get you across the line

In terms of weaponry it’s your choice, but a gun with a large magazine is your safest bet so you can mow down as many enemies as possible without reloading. My personal favourite was the Dominator, I felt like I could shoot that thing for minutes at a time without reloading.

Don’t rush the consoles, unless you want a veritable tsunami of tough enemies

You may be tempted to hit those consoles as fast as you can, but this is the opposite of what you want to do. You’ll probably realise fairly quickly that enemies will spawn infinitely, but what you may not realise is that it’s only the fodder enemies that will infinitely spawn, and their threat is minimal as long as you’ve got the loadout I suggested. Focus on clearing out the bigger, more dangerous enemies in each wave (more on this below), until it’s only the annoying minion things respawning, then hit the console.

Keep in mind that as soon as you have successfully interacted with a console, a fresh wave of tough enemies will appear soon after, becoming tougher with each wave/console interaction. Thin their numbers until it’s just minions respawning and then proceed to the next console (don’t forget the Rejuv Field/Razor Dronette combo when you do!).

Also keep in mind that once you’ve killed enough minions, the larger and more deadly variant will begin to appear with increasing frequency, so don’t get caught killing the little guys pointlessly or you’ll simply quicken the arrival of the big guys.

Hit those consoles one by one, clearing out the tough enemies in each wave before hitting the next one.

Dying is fine, every attempt builds your strength

I’m not talking about building your strength in a metaphysical zen way, I mean that all the XP and loot you acquire during an attempt is conserved upon death. This is an odd design quirk of the game, and means if you fail this encounter a few times you’ll probably level up a few times and might get some good armour drops too. This will give you more damage output and skill points to put into whatever skills you feel will get you through.

The final console interaction ends the encounter

If you want to see those credits roll, all you have to do is successfully interact with that last console. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got swarms of arseholes descending on your position when you do, as long as you complete the interaction. Did I mention the Rejuv Field/Razor Dronette combo?

Hopefully this little guide leads you to victory if you’re struggling with the tough final exchange. Time to ascend.